Palin Derangement Disorder that is. Like BDS and ODS, PDS is the belief that whatever a person does or believes is ipso facto a bad thing. Even when the target of the syndrome is doing what somebody the victim of the xDS admires.
In the case of Sarah Palin what PZ Myers of Pharyngula goes about in Ms. Palin, You Fail is the fact the woman used mnemonics in her speech at a recentTea Party convention. Yet when President Obama uses a teleprompter it raises not a stir.
Barack Obama is not comfortable speaking extemporaneously, but prefers to get his thoughts down where he can read them off. Sarah Palin is more comfortable speaking extemporaneously, and uses words as mnemonics to remind her of what she wants to talk about. To say that Obama’s written speeches are good things, but Palin’s off the cuff (with some assistance from the back of her hand) are signs of the apocalypse is rather two faced. What I get from this is that Paul is envious of Palin’s comfort in her own skin, and uncomfortable with Obama’s reliance on putting what he wants to say in writing.
The President feels more comfortable reading his speeches off a teleprompter. That says nothing about the validity of what he’s saying. Palin uses mnemonics to remind her of what she means to say. That says nothing about the validity of what she’s saying. To say the opposite shows that the person in question is more concerned with his impression of another than it does of that other person. It is short sighted and counter productive.
Dr. Myers is human, and his post on Ms. Palin shows this in no uncertain terms. In that he is like everybody else, so if you get tempted to view him as some sort of prophet of God, keep in mind that the Prophet Mohammed was a product of his times and culture, and may have had epilepsy besides. Which is to say that no one is perfect, for God — in my experience — works with the flawed in preference to any other type of person. Read Pharyngula by all means, but remember that PZ Myers has his blind spots and short comings.
